Beethoven composed the concerto in 1809 under salary in Vienna, and he dedicated it to Archduke Rudolf, who was his patron, friend, and pupil.

Its public premiere was on 28 November 1811 in Leipzig, with Friedrich Schneider as the soloist and Johann Philipp Christian Schulz conducting the Gewandhaus Orchestra.

Beethoven used novel approaches with the piece, such as beginning the solo entrance without orchestral introduction, lengthening the concerto, and creating a new relationship between piano and orchestra.

The origin of the epithet Emperor is uncertain; it may have been coined by Johann Baptist Cramer, the English publisher of the concerto.

The concerto has no association with any emperor, and according to Donald Tovey and Betsy Schwarm, Beethoven would have disliked it due to his disapproval of Napoleon's conquest.

Beethoven's return to Vienna from Heiligenstadt in 1802 marked a change in musical style and is now often designated as the start of his middle or "heroic" period characterized by many original works composed on a grand scale.

[7] Beethoven's hearing loss did not prevent him from composing music, but it made playing at concerts increasingly difficult.

[17] According to Donald Tovey and Betsy Schwarm, Beethoven would have disliked the epithet due to his disapproval of Napoleon's conquest.

Stephan Lindeman and William Kinderman have speculated that Beethoven wanted to control all aspects of the piece since he could not personally perform it or create a better flow without a virtuosic interruption.

[10] The propulsive first theme follows, and the expository material repeats with variations, virtuoso figurations, and modified harmonies.

The second theme, a march, appears first in B minor form in the strings, then thematically shifts to C-flat major by the horns.

The second exposition with the piano introduces a triumphant, virtuosic third theme that belongs solely to the solo instrument, a trademark of Beethoven's concertos.

The coda elaborates upon the open-ended first theme, building intensity before finishing with a final climactic arrival at the tonic E♭ major.

The third movement begins without interruption when a lone bassoon note B drops a semitone to B♭, the dominant of the tonic key E♭.

[30] Like the Appassionata sonata and the Violin Concerto, the score is notated with attacca to indicate little to no break with the previous movement which did not end with complete closure.

In the last section, the theme undergoes variation before the concerto ends with a short cadenza and robust orchestral response.

One review said: In the exuberance of his genius, he almost never thinks of the ne quid nimium;[b] he pursues his theme with tireless haste, not infrequently makes digressions which seem baroque, and thus, through exertion, he himself exhausts the eager attention of the weaker musical amateur, who cannot follow his train of thought.

[43] In 1922, Frederic Lamond made the first complete recording with the Royal Albert Hall Orchestra under Eugene Goossens.

[44] In 1945, Walter Gieseking made a stereophonic tape recording for German radio with the Grosses Funkorchester under Artur Rother.

5 was recorded by Claudio Arrau in 1958,[46] Wilhelm Kempff in 1961,[47] Vladimir Ashkenazy in 1972,[48] Alicia de Larrocha in 1983,[49] Hélène Grimaud in 2006,[50] and Glenn Gould.